Halloween Ends

We were pretty excited about Halloween this year as COVID had abated and Nora and Owen planned and assembled their costumes months in advance (going as the 11th and 12th Doctors, respectively). But Nora never coordinated trick-or-treating with their friends on the Hill, and Owen's plan fell through when his friends decided to go to a party instead. Given that no one at school understood who Nora was (not a lot of Doctor Who fans at Sheridan, apparently), Owen decided to hang out with Duke friends after school, and it was raining, it wasn't surprising that the kids decided not to actively participate in the door-to-door aspects of Halloween this year, and instead opted to watch Doctor Who as a family while occasionally handing out candy. But it was a little bittersweet.

See, next year Owen will be a senior at Duke Ellington and, if things go well, Nora will be a ninth grader there too. Since classes at Duke don't end until 5:00 pm, chances are the pair will decide (again) to hang out with friends after school on Hallow's Eve, in lieu of coming directly home. That means that much like this year, we won't have any kids trick-or-treating in 2023. It also means that 2021 was the last year we had kids participating in those activities, which we didn't realize at the time.

As the reality that Owen will be heading off to college soon and just how quickly both kids are growing up sets in, we keep experiencing final moments without realizing it at the time. And while I guess this makes for less emotionally fraught moments (which I'm sure the kids appreciate), it also makes us a little nostalgic for all those days and Halloweens of yore.

Though on the plus side, we'll always have Allen and Brad.